Chemical weapons inspectors may arrive in Syria on Friday - United Nations

August 16, 2013, 3:40 UTC+3Last Wednesday, the United Nations Secretariat announced that it had agreed the terms of the mission’s work with Damascus

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UNITED NATIONS, August 16 (Itar-Tass) - The United Nations Secretariat believes that a group of chemical weapons experts may arrive in Damascus on Friday. However, the details of the trip are kept secret for security reasons.

U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Hak explained that the inspectors would act independently from the United Nations Secretariat. According to him, the United Nations secretary-general has authorised Professor Ake Sellstrom, the head of the chemical weapons team, to make independent decisions on which places should be inspected.

Last Wednesday, the United Nations Secretariat announced that it had agreed the terms of the mission’s work with Damascus. The chemical weapons inspectors will investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons during the Syrian conflict. Under an agreement with the Syrian authorities, the experts will stay in Syria for two weeks to study three assumed chemical attacks, including the one in Khan al-Assal, an outskirt of Aleppo. The Syrian and Russian authorities claim that the Syrian militants used nervous gas Sarin in Khan al-Assal on March 19. Initially, Damascus had asked to investigate that incident.

Informed sources at the United Nations headquarters believe that the inspectors will arrive in Damascus in the course of a day. They will talk to chemical attack victims, to the doctors who examined the victims and witnesses. After that, the experts will submit a report that will contain pure facts. The United Nations Secretariat has stressed it many times that the investigation’s objective is to establish whether chemical weapons was used in Syria rather than blaming one of the parties in conflict.